SKIT MAKING; AN AID TO SALES

There is this video by NdaniTV on YouTube, where they interviewed the Nigerian musician, Yemi Alade, and asked her all sorts of questions about finance and the music business. (Two areas I have some interest in!)

At a point in the interview, they got to talking about online presence, and the interviewer mentioned some skits Yemi Alade has done online, with her brother and other people. 

The interviewer then asked her that given the digital era we are in and the fact that social media platforms are so popular, would she say that skit making is pivotal to selling her music these days?

She gave it some thought and said Yes. 

According to Yemi Alade, Skit making is a huge part of promotion for businesses in general — not just music business — both for you personally as a brand and for your business, in every way.

She went ahead to use common home products like detergents as examples. Even though the ads by these companies are majorly on tv and radio, some of them qualify as what we now generally call skits online.

Even though I’ve not done it for my personal brand, over the years at NairaBet, we’ve worked with a lot of celebrities and influencers, and skit making has been a huge part of our promotion.

Not just that, it has contributed positively to the company’s bottom line over and over again. I can’t overstate how important skit making is for businesses. 

The noise on social media is so loud now that it gets harder by the day to get positive attention on social media.

When platforms are crowded like that, what helps you stand out as a business is your creativity.

If you post the normal videos that people are used to, especially ones that look like obvious ads or promotions for your brand, then people just scroll past it.

You have to remember that the people are there for one major purpose: to be entertained.

People take breaks from their lives to get some entertainment on social media, not to watch ads or promotions.

The best way to position yourself as a brand, and catch not just attention but get some love and patronage, is to first entertain them, before selling to them.

The formula is simple: entertainment + promotion = sales.

You simply need to watch all these popular skit makers to get the formula. Sometimes you’ve laughed off and gotten to the end of the video before you even realize it’s an ad.

I prefer working with such creative influencers than the ones that just post your promotional video or do their own video for you as an obvious promotion. Or start mentioning your brand before it gets to the interesting part.

And if you’re going to use faceless brands (like Instablog9ja) or big boys that can’t do skits for you (like Tunde Ednut), then do your skit by yourself or hire those who can do the skit then post on those big platforms.

There is a lot of power in third party content. Blow your own horn and it can go far; let someone else blow it for you and it would go twice as far.

That’s not the point today anyway. Point is: find creative ways to entertain people around your product or service before outrightly promoting it at the end of the entertainment.

And you’ll make more sales than when you just outrightly promote your stuff.

It works very well and that’s what made the Harmon Brothers very successful and highly sought-after by business owners.

They’ve been able to create fun ads that go very viral because of their entertainment value and in essence blow up the companies they advertise.

They are the agency behind the success of products like Poo-Pourri and Squatty Potty. You can check those products on YouTube to find their viral ads.

In fact, they helped take Poo-Pourri founder from a bankrupt entrepreneur to building a brand valued at $400Million as at 2019.

That’s the power of creating fun, entertaining ads. They couldn’t even fulfill all the orders they got and had to beg people to wait or get a refund.

That’s some nice problem I’d love to have!

There are a few keys to creating ads (content generally) that go viral. I’ll discuss some of them in my next email.

Don’t miss it.

Till then, have a great week ahead!

PS: Ensure you don’t just create ads for the sake of fun. You want to make sure you end by asking for the sale. You do this by sprinkling elements of direct response marketing into your entertainment ads.

You can find these elements discussed in my books: Small Business Big Money and How to Sell to Nigerians.

Written by: Akin Alabi (Nigerian Business Mogul)

Shared by: Danwilliams